ANSI colors in OutputChannel

[seanmcbreen]

From @SamVerschueren on October 30, 2015 6:9

I might have seen a post regarding styling of the OutputChannel, but not sure though.

I think it would be a nice feature to support ANSI colors. This way libraries like chalk can be used to style the output. Another benefit is that if you develop a plugin like Yeoman, who outputs to the console, the output can be directly passed to the OutputChannel.

Not sure if this is possible, but I think it would be a nice feature. No need to implement our own styling stuff in the channel, just use libraries that already exist.

Copied from original issue: Microsoft/vscode-extensionbuilders#69

[seanmcbreen]

From @bpasero on October 30, 2015 7:16

Yes, this is on the plan for post November.

[seanmcbreen]

From @SamVerschueren on October 30, 2015 7:16

Awesome, great job!

[daviwil]

Excellent!

[orta]

As there's not been too much activity on this thread, I'd like to drop a +1 - I was comparing some of my extension's output from the debug console to it's user's Output Channel and would love to be able to show colour in there.

[abotsi]

Up!
Is there anything new on this side? Do you have an idea of why a such feature cannot be added?

[orta]

To provide a workaround, you can create a custom log syntax for the output - see https://github.com/IBM-Bluemix/vscode-log-output-colorizer

[abotsi]

Thank you @orta for your quick response, but the extension you proposed did't enhances my situation. Actually, my problem is I don't get anything from ProgressBarPlugin when I bundle my project with WebPack with VSCode task, whereas I get a nice print when I run the command from a terminal...

Output panel (actual) :

Terminal panel (expected) :

I don't know if it's directly related with issue (this plugin WebPack use chalk, which could be the problem), maybe I should create another thread...

[orta]

I was noting that you could write a colorizer yourself, not that it would help you right now.

[erichiller]

+1 this - seems to be possible to render the ansi in the same method as the internal termimal - in fact I would prefer it this way! Because then my variables and other environment configs I define within that environment become available.

[jbcpollak]

pytest output is next to impossible to debug without this feature. Please consider re-opening it. For now I've resorted to running pytest on the terminal and just ignore the IDE integration entirely.

[sn0wf4ke]

yes. for pytest it would be a great enhancement on usability.

[paxcodes]

@jbcpollak @sn0wf4ke I also use Pytest and would love to have this feature. There is an existing issue over at vscode-python repo. microsoft/vscode-python#12615

Giving the issue a thumbs up would help as one of the maintainers say,

how many 👍 votes the opening comment gets [..] help us make our decision.

[bconway]

I would love to take this out of my (logging) code:

// VSCode does not support colors in the output channel:
// https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/571
NoColor:    true,

[nrhoffmann]

I'd recommend using an extension pseudoterminal.

Documentation is a little scarce. See ShMcK/vscode-pseudoterminal for a simple example of this in use.

[malmod]

Please reopen this!

[OliverScherf]

We really need this! Reopen please.

[rollingmoai]

+1 for this!

[Bi0max]

+1 for this!!

[Rickaym]

+1 for this!

[m-paternostro]

+1 for this!

[dongxuan]

+1 for this!

[Tantol]

+1

[ghadesi]

Please, re-open this issue. It could be super helpful for the pytest tests.

[JamyDev]

@isidorn Would you be able to bring this issue up for reconsideration? I know it's an old one, but we're integrating with Test Explorer and that uses the OutputChannel for our build+test output. Would be nice to have ANSI support.

[isidorn]

@JamyDev would be great if you can open a new issue. I am not sure if this is something we will tackle any time soon though.

[MohamedLamineAllal]

I made a year ago and half a proof of concept of something that cleans the ansi colors code clutter mess in output channels. A day work or something. And since then it was buried in my laptop. Two days ago i went through the repo. And got curious. I thought the problem would have been fixed with newer vscode versions. Surprised it's not yet ❗

And absolutely, something that allows optional opting to activate or disable ansi colors codes interpretation, should be supported by vscode. Or an API that allows extension to manipulate existing channels. And editing text and its decoration. And that's because many of the extension and CLI tools use ANSI color codes, as they are meant for the Terminal.

• Giving the situation. I decided. I'll try to publish something workable, maybe some will find it helpful. And not leave it buried in my laptop. From willing to just publish something. I ended by working out a fully optimized extension. That works and tackles the problem well. I did that yesterday.

Check it out

• ✨ TheMagicianDev.vsc-clean-output-log ( CleanLog ) ✨
• https://github.com/TheMagicianDev/vsc-clean-output-log

The documentation details all. Including the core ideas of the solution. And a full showcase.

[MohamedLamineAllal]

I did some extra validation. And i see myself able to fully support ansi colors codes colorization. I'll try to handle that on the weekend.
Idea

• Use editor decoration. All Output panels are editors. And are accessible through vscode.window.visibleTextEditors, Fully validated with the usage of setDecorations()

• I just need to check and validate Output channel change event (editor something) and the ranges handling.

[iBicha]

Please reopen this issue - the need for this will not magically disappear, thanks

[ffMathy]

@jrieken could you provide some justification as to why this was closed as out-of-scope? There are many who still need it, so an explanation would be great.